"Tenebris" By Droidking777

Tenebris is a game created by droidking777

Tenebris by droidking777

I haven't been active on the site for nearly two years, so I was interested to see how the capabilities of the PPG creator have been explored since my absence. From a first glance, Tenebris seemed like it had potential to provide.

In droidking777's own words, the story follows the journey of four characters pulled into a magical portal controlled by a demon named "Shadowdroid". Shadowdroid is the antagonist, a diety that has "manifested in a physical form made from darkness and hatred".

Gameplay Mechanics & Plot

The primary gimmick of Tenebris is, in my eyes, the ability to switch between characters at the beginning of each level. Besides from that, though, the movement and controls aren't anything extraordinary, but proficient given the genre. While some of the objectives are rather unintuitive, the confusion allows the player to observe the aesthetics of the level to the fullest, further immersing the player into the plot and creating an atmosphere within the game itself. This is a refreshing change from the general platforming PPG with a straight-forward objective, provoking no mental stimulation. I'm not sure it was intentional, but in a heavily-plot-based game it's very important, and I feel that Tenebris did an excellent job with this.

The physics exhibited in Tenebris are very ingenuitive and wonderfully executed. It's the little things, such as the lever on Level 3 and the clouds on Level 5, that demonstrate droidking777's ability as a developer, pushing the limitations of the creator to new heights. Due to this, however, the levels have a tendency to feel clustered and overcrowded, especially the boss fight. I feel as though more could've been done in a way that wouldn't hinder the player's ability to experience and enjoy the game.

Aesthetics

Tenebris somehow finds a way to incorporate both graphical and textural elements from a variety of styles and themes without feeling like a mess. That being said, from an artistic standpoint there's nothing very impressive about Tenebris, but it's fine given the premise of the game. The aesthetics accurately compliment the atmosphere of each level in a way easily understandable to the player, using dark colours and jagged edges for the "hellish" scenes, bright and vibrant colours for neutral outdoor scenes, and everything inbetween for the various elements that the plot explores.

Ratings

While Tenebris isn't perfect, it is a wonderful exhibition of the potential of the PPG creator, from the same narrative as the many explorative story-based platformers that dominate Sploder. In my opinion, Tenebris does correctly what many of the common "Super Mario goes to the Pokemon Store"-esque games do incorrectly.